Britain secretly tested a nuclear delivery system as recently as 1978 in the Australian desert on the site of what is now a refugee camp, a rocket researcher will reveal tomorrow.

The penetration aids carrier (Pac) system was tested at the Woomera rocket range - which now houses a refugee detention centre - in 1969, 1975, 1976 and 1978, according to amateur rocket enthusiast, John Pitfield.

Mr Pitfield will tell the British Rocketry Oral History Programme (BROHP) conference in Surrey that public record office documents show that Pac was used to dispense missiles and manoeuvre a Falstaff rocket, part of Britain's now defunct Polaris nuclear missile programme.

With its capacity to launch decoys as well as missiles to form a "threat cloud", Pac was designed to defeat the anti-ballistic missile defence systems developed by the Soviet Union at the time. No nuclear warheads were launched with the testing of the Pac system at Woomera, which was monitored by British scientists in the South Australian desert, 300 miles north of Adelaide.

But the revelation is likely to astonish many anti-nuclear campaigners in Australia, who understood that Britain's testing of nuclear technology in the country had ended in 1963.

Dave Wright, co-organiser of the BROHP conference, said that it was "inconceivable" that senior figures in the Australian government "did not know Falstaff was being tested".

Neither the British nor Australian governments have released details of the testing of more than 4,000 rockets at Woomera, which was established in 1947 and only closed three years ago.

The desert defence base was useful because unlike most sea-based missile testing sites, rockets detonated at Woomera were launched over a vast area of land, enabling scientists to recover and study rocket remains.

James O'Connell, emeritus professor of peace studies at Bradford University, said: "The British, with their usual passion for secrecy, have been reluctant to reveal documents."

He added: "The Australian government connived with their schemes, but they are more embarrassed now over stories of radiation fallout than they are over the rocketry."

The secret history of Britain's testing of atomic bombs and technology in Australia during the Cold War has been controversial.

Between 1952 and 1963, as many as 18,000 Australian and 22,000 British troops were exposed to nuclear contamination during atomic explosions. Many test veterans later died prematurely of multiple cancers.

Seven New Zealand ex-servicemen have launched legal action against the New Zealand government for putting them through dangerous nuclear testing which they said left them with debilitating illnesses.